Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
ALASKA COOPERATIVES IN THE BERING SEA AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0401
We are requesting minor adjustments associated with a pending final rule (RIN 0648-AY28) to
remove reporting requirements for an Annual Preliminary American Fisheries Act (AFA)
Cooperative Report and revise reporting requirements for an AFA Cooperative Annual Report.
Under regulations implementing the AFA (67 FR 79692; December 30, 2002), the AFA
cooperatives are required to submit to the Council each year a preliminary and a final report
describing their pollock fishing (see § 679.61(f)). The AFA cooperative annual reports are
required to provide information about how each cooperative allocated pollock, other groundfish
species, and prohibited species among the vessels in the cooperative; the catch of these species
by area by each vessel in the cooperative; information about how the cooperative monitored
fishing by its members; and a description of any actions taken by the cooperative to penalize
vessels that exceeded the catch and prohibitive species catch (PSC) allocations made to the
vessel by the cooperative. The purpose of the cooperative reports is to provide the Council
information upon which decisions are made on cooperative allocations and on sideboard
protection measures.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) originally recommended that the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) require a preliminary report to provide as much
information as was available by December 1 and a final report to update or add any information
that became available by February 1 of the following year.
Since implementation of these requirements, the Council determined that the information in the
preliminary report is not necessary to develop its recommendations on final groundfish
specifications. Therefore, NMFS removes the requirement for an annual preliminary AFA
cooperative report and augments the requirements for an AFA final report. A single AFA
cooperative final report, renamed an annual AFA cooperative report, would provide sufficient
information to the Council and the industry about the fishing activities of the AFA cooperatives.
This action results in a reduction of burden of 308 hours. Some decrease in miscellaneous costs
might occur due to postage cost differences. However, at this time we are not revising our cost
estimate based on this change.

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